UK Consumers Trigger 9% Rise in Searches for International Goods

The volume of Brits searching for goods outside of the UK has risen by 9% over the last year, according to new stats from the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

Working off data from Google, the association has shown a notable increase in Brits using the web to shop overseas. A rise of 9% in international searches since Q1 2014 is even higher than the 5% seen a year beforehand.

This is a trend being felt around the world, as the number of consumers from foreign markets searching for UK apparel has risen 10% over the last year.

The BRC’s data goes into detail regarding the consumers most likely to search for UK items, highlighting Serbia, Slovakia and Hungary as emerging markets.

Tablet turn-off

As well as covering searches in general, an ‘Online Retail Monitor’ for Q1 2015 applies a great deal of focus to the rising volumes of shoppers browsing for goods via mobile devices.

Every single market surveyed by the BRC reported a year-on-year rise in searches for UK goods via smartphones, going up as high as 194% in Serbia and as low as 15% in Australia.

With tablets, however, the enthusiasm appears to be waning. While Serbia topped the leaderboard again, its tablet searches for UK retailers increasing 86%, 6 of the 13 markets saw a decrease in activity.

These included some of the most developed online markets, including Russia (-7%), the US (-10%) and Australia (-26%).

Many EU markets are helping to keep the tablet ticking, with Germany (24%), France (7%), Ireland (8%) and Spain (6%) increasing their searches for UK goods.

Striking a balance

The success of the smartphone and demise of the tablet, combined, equate to moderate increases in mobile searches to UK retailers between 2014 - 2015.

Serbia is leading the pack through a 36% rise, with India (23%), Germany (23%) and Taiwan (20%) all putting in strong performances.

As for the most popular goods to search for, the crown for growth belongs to luxury apparel on 15%, pairing a 57% rise in smartphone searches with a 5% decline on tablet.

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Richard Towey

Richard is a former head of content at PerformanceIN. After many years spent covering developments from the automotive, sports, travel and finance sectors, he eventually turned his full attention to reporting on stories from the fast-evolving world of digital marketing.